One of my favorite restaurants in my hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas serves the most incredible vegetarian enchiladas verdes.

If you’re ever in town, you absolutely have to visit Heights Taco and Tamale. The food and drinks are great and they also happen to serve our very favorite cheese dip.

Their menu features a chicken verde enchilada, but it was their vegetarian enchiladas verdes that completely won me over.

Of course, I had to try recreating something similar at home.

After plenty of trial and error, these vegetarian enchiladas with creamy verde sauce have become a true family favorite. It is hearty, flavorful, and perfect for a weeknight dinner.

I hope you love them as much as we do.

What are Enchiladas Verdes?

Enchiladas verdes are simply enchiladas made with a green sauce instead of a traditional red sauce.

That vibrant green color comes from salsa verde, which is typically made with tomatillos, onion, garlic, fresh cilantro, and a mild chile like serrano.

You can absolutely make homemade salsa verde if you’d like, but for this weeknight-friendly recipe, I use a jarred version from the grocery store.

It keeps things simple.

While enchiladas verdes are often filled with shredded chicken or other meats, this version leans into vegetables.

I use corn, zucchini, spinach, and creamy white beans. You truly won’t miss the meat.

Vegetarian Enchiladas Verdes with Creamy Sauce

These hearty vegetarian enchiladas verdes are filled with zucchini, white beans, sweet corn, and green chiles, then baked in a creamy tomatillo sauce and topped with melty Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese.

Serves

12 – 14 enchiladas (fits tightly into a 9×13-inch baking dish)

Ingredients

Filling

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2 – 3 zucchini (about 3 cups), cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt (plus more to taste)
• 3 cups chopped fresh spinach
• 1 (15-ounce) can white beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15-ounce) can shoepeg corn, drained
• 1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles
• 1/4 cup tomatillo (verde) sauce
• 1 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
• 1 1/2 cup Pepper Jack cheese, shredded

Creamy Verde Sauce

• 1½ cups jarred tomatillo (verde) sauce
• ½ to ¾ cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• Pinch of salt

For Assembly

• 12 – 14 tortillas (or corn/flour blend tortillas)
• Extra 2–3 tablespoons tomatillo sauce for bottom of pan
• 1/2 – 1 cup of the cheese for the topping

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Instructions

1. Make the Filling

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and zucchini and cook 6–7 minutes until softened and the zucchini has released most of its moisture.

Stir in garlic, cumin, and salt. Cook 30 seconds until fragrant.

Add spinach and cook until wilted.

Stir in white beans, corn, green chiles, and 1/4 cup tomatillo sauce. Cook 2–3 minutes until heated through and cohesive but not too wet.

Remove from heat.

2. Grate the cheeses

Grate the cheeses and set aside. Be sure and see the notes about the cheese proportions!

3. Make the Creamy Verde Sauce

In a bowl, whisk together the tomatillo sauce, sour cream, lime juice, and a pinch of salt.

4. Prepare the Pan

Spread a thin layer (2–3 tablespoons) of plain tomatillo sauce in the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish.

5. Assemble the Tortillas

Spoon a line of cheese and filling into each tortilla and place seam side down in the baking dish. See the notes for more information about filling the tortillas. You want them to be full but still rollable so that the seam side overlaps.

Continue until the baking dish is full. It’s ok to squeeze them in close together.

6. Add the Creamy Verde Sauce (and Use up Any Extra Filling)

Often after the pan is full I still have a little extra filling. Don’t let it go to waste, Just sprinkle it over the top of the enchiladas.

Pour the creamy verde sauce evenly over the top. Sprinkle with the reserved shredded cheese.

7. Bake

Cover loosely with foil and bake 25 minutes.

Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes, until bubbly and lightly golden. You can even turn on the broiler for a few minutes to brown up the top of the enchiladas.

Let rest 5–10 minutes before serving to help the enchiladas set.

Optional Garnishes

• Fresh cilantro
• Thinly sliced green onions
• Diced avocado
• Extra squeeze of lime

Recipe Notes For Preparing Creamy Vegetarian Enchiladas Verdes

Which Brand of Salsa Verde?

As mentioned above this recipe calls for jarred salsa verde. The brand that I typically use is Herdez which is easy to find at my grocery store.

Just be sure to select the mild green salsa made with tomatillos. You’ll see spicy verde sauce, but that can easily overpower the enchiladas.

What type of Tortillas?

I found a tortilla at our local Trader Joe’s that I love for this recipe. They are a mixture of flour and wheat.

However, if you don’t have access to a Trader Joe’s then I suggest using flour tortillas.

Toasted Tortillas

To give the tortillas a little bit more structure in the finished product it helps to toast them a little. When I have time I simply dry toast them in a skillet.

You don’t want to cook them to the point that they are crispy and crack when you fold them, but just enough to give a bit of a bite and barrier to the liquid in the filling.

Plus, they taste better when they are toasted a little.

But don’t worry, if you don’t want to mess with this step the enchiladas will still be delicious.

Controlling The Amount of Spice with the Cheeses

The spice in this recipe comes from the pepper jack cheese. We like a half and half mixture of Pepper Jack and either Monterey Jack.

It has the perfect amount of spice for our taste!

But you know your preferences! If you like it spicier you can change the proportions or even do all spicy cheese.

Don’t Use Pre-grated Cheese

Shredded cheese melts better when you grate it yourself!

How to Stuff the Tortillas

Add a line of cheese to each tortilla and then add the vegetable ingredients as full as you can while still being able to wrap the tortilla around the filling.

Place the tortillas in the 9×13 pan seam side down.

Then cook and enjoy